bleehatcher 's review for:

The White Princess by Philippa Gregory

4.0

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This novel is a beautiful speculation on one of the deepest mysteries in the War of the Roses in England. What really happened to the missing York princes? Although there are some moments that stretched my believability a bit thin, I found myself fascinated by the possibility of a saved Richard of York and the much more tumultuous marriage between Elizabeth of York and Henry VII than I have previously read. In keeping with the mystical elements peppered throughout Gregory's Cousin's War series, there is a curse first spoken of in the previous novel laid upon he who kills a York Prince. This curse to kill a son, grandson, and produce an heirless "Virgin Queen" and a "vision" Elizabeth has of a powerful Elizabeth ruling England was laid a bit thick for my taste. It was as if Gregory didn't trust the reader to understand more subtle language that she was foreshadowing the next two generations of Tudor monarchs. A solid read and interesting theory, but not her strongest novel.